By Erik Schmidt: In a bit of bad news for boxing fans, IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham (27-0, 22 KOs) was forced to postpone his mandatory title defense against contender Raul Marquez due to a bad flue that Abraham recently contracted. The fight, Abraham’s 8th title defense of his IBF belt, was supposed to have taken place at the Jako-Arena, Bamberg, in Bayern, Germany, tonight. Instead, however, the bout will be rescheduled for a month from now on November 8th, at which time Abraham hopefully will be fully recovered from his nasty case of flu bug. Along with Abraham’s cancellation, the entire card will also be postponed until November 8th, as it would probably be difficult to attract boxing fans without the presence of a big star like Abraham at the head of the bill.
Abraham, 28, is coming off a fine 4-round TKO over Edison Miranda in June, a bout that may have been the absolute finest of Abraham’s career. Miranda, maybe the hardest puncher in the both the middleweight and super middleweight divisions, fought well up until the final seconds of the third round when Abraham staggered him with a two powerful right hands. Miranda, luckily, made it through the remainder of the round as Abraham fought cautiously and didn’t go after him and try to finish him off.
In the 4th round, Miranda, whose head probably hadn’t fully recovered from being hurt in the tail end of the 3rd, went after Abraham as if he was conducting business as usual. Abraham waited until the perfect moment and landed a hard jab and then fast combination sending a badly hurt Miranda to the canvas. Abraham immediately knocked Miranda down again after he got up with a big left hook to the head. Miranda, not wanting to give up, once again rose to his feet and attempted to fight back. Abraham, however, put him out of his misery with another big left hook to the head that sent Miranda down to the canvas for the third and final time in the round.
The two fighters previously fought a controversial match a year previously in September 2006, a bout marred by constant fouls called against Miranda and an injury sustained to Abraham’s jaw, which was broken early in the fight, causing Abraham to have to fight most of the bout from the 5th to the 12th with his mouth wide open, swallowing large amounts of his own blood from his mouth injury.
Despite the impressive win over Miranda in the second fight, Abraham has yet to capitalize on it in terms of landing a big money fight against one of the big stars in the middleweight division like Kelly Pavlik or Jermain Taylor. Pavlik has his own plans, preparing for a fight against 43 year-old Bernard Hopkins, and Taylor, whose star has been diminished somewhat due to two consecutive losses to Pavlik, is looking at a fight against Jeff Lacy on November 15th in the super middleweight division.